Skip to content

Log inBook a demo Start free

The monthly client report

Re-run prompts and audits, compare in Progress reports and export the PDF.

Lesson 3 of 7
Intermediate
8 min read
2:32 video
Checked against the product 2026-11-03

Listen to this lesson · 2:30

In shortA monthly client report compares this month with last month on the same prompts, engines and pages. In AI Rank Lab you re-run the client's prompts and re-audit their key pages, then open Progress reports, take a snapshot, compare it with last month's, add a summary and the work you did, and download a branded PDF. The comparison and PDF are free; only the fresh runs and audits cost credits. Nothing is re-run for you, so schedule the runs yourself.

What a good monthly report does

A client wants three answers: did things get better, what did you do, and what's next. A good report answers them with like-for-like numbers. The same questions, on the same engines, against the same pages as last month. Anything else turns noise into false wins or false losses.

Progress reports builds the comparison from data already stored in your account. It never runs anything live and never fills gaps with estimates: if something wasn't measured, it says Not measured. That's why the first half of this playbook is about collecting fresh data the same way every month.

The workflow

Fix the prompt set onceIn AI search → Brand visibility → Prompt research, agree with the client which prompts and engines you report on, and keep their wording unchanged. Edited wording starts a new history. Cost: free to keep. Lesson: Add and research prompts.
Re-run the prompts in the last week of the monthRun the agreed prompts on the agreed engines. Prompts run only when you run them, so put this in your calendar. Cost: per engine per prompt. Lesson: Run prompts across AI engines.
Re-audit the key pagesGenerate fresh reports in AI search → AEO and GEO checker for the pages you track, or use Run audit inside Progress reports, which costs the same. Cost: per URL. Lesson: Read the AI audit report.
Glance at Search Console and GA4If the client's Search Console is connected, page clicks and impressions are added to the snapshot. Check Analytics → Search Console → GSC overview and Analytics → Google Analytics 4 → GA4 overview for anything you need to explain. Cost: free to read. Lessons: Connect Search Console, Track AI referral traffic in GA4.
Take this month's snapshotOpen AI search → Monitoring and reports → Progress reports, pick the domain and Take a snapshot. A snapshot collects the prompt runs, page audits and AI visits stored for a window ending on the date you choose (30 days by default). Cost: free. Lesson: Build a before-and-after comparison.
Build the comparisonAnswer the three questions: What do you want to compare? (website audit or AI visibility), Compare with (an earlier report for progress, or a competitor's site for a benchmark), then Choose the two reports: last month's and this month's. Read the summary, then switch to Full detail for every check. Cost: free.
Write the summary and log the workAdd a short executive summary in your own words and use Add work to list what you changed this month, so the client sees cause next to effect. Cost: free. Lesson: Export a client-ready report.
Brand it and download the PDFSet the client domain's logo and colours once in Settings → Account → Branding. If that domain has no branding, the report uses the first domain you did brand (possibly another client's), and only with no branding at all does it use AI Rank Lab's. Then click Download report. Cost: free. Lesson: White-label branding.

Reading the comparison honestly

You see	It means	Say to the client
Not measured	No data for that item in one of the periods	"We didn't measure this last month", never "zero"
Not comparable	Both measured, but not in a way that can be compared	Leave it out of the headline
Rank moves from unranked to a position	Newly mentioned, not a rank gain	"Now mentioned on this engine"
Big swing in AI metrics	Check it's on shared question and engine pairs	Explain one run is a snapshot, not a trend

Empty sections mean nothing ran

A snapshot only reads what exists in its window. If you forgot to run the prompts this month, the AI section is empty; Progress reports won't run them for you. Run first, snapshot second.

Team members can't open it

If you work on a client domain shared with you through Team access, you can't open its progress report. The domain owner has to build and send it.

Automate the summary email, not the data

If you want a recurring email, an Autopilot workflow can run on a schedule and email you a summary, and each run is charged. Brand visibility prompts themselves never run on a schedule, so the comparison still comes from the runs you do in steps 2 and 3.

Check yourself

1. You open Progress reports and the AI visibility section for this month is empty. Why?

2. An item shows "Not measured" for last month. How should the report describe it?

3. What does the monthly report cost?

0 of 3 answered.

Progress is saved in this browser.

Transcript

This playbook walks you through the monthly client report. A client wants three answers. Did things get better? What did you do? And what's next? The only fair way to answer the first one is like for like. The same questions, on the same engines, against the same pages as last month. Progress reports builds the comparison from data already in your account. It never runs anything live, and it never fills gaps with guesses. If something wasn't measured, it says Not measured. So the first half of this playbook is about collecting fresh data the same way every month. Step one. Agree the prompt set with your client once, and keep the wording exactly the same. Changing the wording starts a new history. Step two. In the last week of the month, run those prompts on the agreed engines. Nothing runs by itself, so put it in your calendar. Step three. Re-audit the key pages in the AEO and GEO checker, or use Run audit inside Progress reports. It costs the same. Step four. Glance at Search Console and GA4 for anything you'll need to explain. If Search Console is connected, page clicks and impressions are added to the snapshot. Step five. Open Progress reports, pick the domain and take a snapshot. It collects everything stored for the last thirty days by default. It's free. Step six. Build the comparison. Choose website audit or AI visibility, compare with an earlier report, and pick last month and this month. Read the summary, then switch to full detail. Step seven. Write a short summary in your own words, and add the work you did, so the client sees cause next to effect. Step eight. Set the client domain's logo once under Settings, Branding, and click Download report. If that domain has no branding, the report borrows the first domain you did brand, so check it before you send. Read the comparison honestly. Not measured is never zero. Moving from unranked to ranked means newly mentioned, not a rank gain. And a big swing in AI numbers may just be variation, so check it's on the same questions and engines. Two gotchas. If you forgot to run the prompts, the AI section is empty. And team members on a shared domain can't open its progress report. The snapshot, comparison and PDF are free. Only the fresh runs and audits cost credits. In the next playbook, you'll diagnose a traffic drop.

Put the lesson to work

Paste your site and get a free SEO, AEO and GEO audit with the fixes, then come back to the next lesson.

Start free Book a demo